Preparing for the Moment
by kistune marionette
Summary: Two years after the Loki-Chitauri incident, the Avengers found themselves a new but less threatening person to deal with – Tony Stark's mysterious adopted child. What's with this new Stark in the tower that's considered threatening for the whole team? Read to find out. Mythology-ish and AU-ish. T for language
1. Prologue

Preparing for the Moment

Summary: Two years after the Loki-Chitauri incident, the Avengers found themselves a new but less threatening person to deal with – Tony Stark's mysterious adopted child. What's with this new Stark in the tower that's considered threatening for the whole team? Read to find out. Mythology-ish and AU-ish.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers. [If I do, I'd seriously make lots of BL scenes in movies :))]

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Prologue: Who says that choosing the heir of a gigantic company isn't easy?

"What the HELL are you saying?!" Fury bellowed on phone as his team silently listen to the ramblings of a rather volatile genius on the phone.

"Did you also lose your ears?" the person on the other end jokingly asked.

"I'm serious here Stark. . ?!" Fury's patience has finally come to an end.

"What else does a person do in an orphanage? Of course I'm here to adopt a child." Tony sarcastically screamed as the children on the orphanage started to cheer at the sight of him.

"Get out of there NOW. You want a CHILD?! WHY DON'T YOU ASK YOUR GIRLS IF THEY PRODUCED ONE?!" Fury almost threw the glass he was drinking into. Gladly enough, Maria took the glass off his hand on time.

"That's not cool you know. I mean I'm sure nobody's carrying my child. I'm quite careful in that department… SIR." He's still shouting, fighting to make sure his voice is heard on the other line, although he made sure the last part was emphasised loudly before he disconnected the call. He never thought there would be chaos in a secluded place like this. He had make arrangements carefully so no press or media would know of his visit in the orphanage. Besides, who would actually even bother to visit an orphanage in the middle of a rundown village?

* * *

"Welcome to our humble home Mr. Stark." A young brunette opened the door towards the orphanage's lobby. He noticed the intricate design on the signboard above the information desk. It read Custodus de Somnium Mundus.

"Custodus de Somnium Mundus? Protectors of the Dream World?" He asked the young brunette who was busily writing something on the record book at the moment.

"We thought that we are protectors of the world these children dreams of having sir." An aged yet beautiful woman answered his question. She has dark brown eyes and hair. She wore a simple blue dress with large black collar and gold lining that's giving off an impression that she's either the owner or someone really significant.

"Ah, I see. Tony Stark," he took the woman's hand and kissed the back of her hand. "I presume you are Ms. Wilhelmina Lockehart, owner of the orphanage?"

"Yes, I am. So about the inquiry you've asked sir-" She was abruptly cut by Tony.

"Just Tony or Stark is fine. I don't feel like being called a sir by such a beauty like you." He flashed his trademark grin to her which earned a surprised but agreeing look on her face.

"Then you may call me Mina." She smiled sweetly. "Then shall we see the children?" He nodded and decided that walking beside her is the best way to avoid being lost. It's not that the house is big but the fact that there are a lot of children here who knows him and what he is here for agitates him.

Mina led the way towards an inner room. The said room was the living room as the young brunette called it. It was quite small if you imagine it being a living room for almost 50 children. It has victorian-styled wallpaper and an antique chandelier. The color of the room was mainly emerald green and pale blue. The furniture on the other hand was modernized but fits perfectly on the wallpaper. All in all, it's like a room from somebody's fantasy or dream. On the long comfy looking sofa in the middle of the room were 10 young children about the age of 8 to 10. Six of them were boys and the rest are girls.

"These children are the ones that passed the qualities you have requested to me last week. By the way here are their profiles." She informed him while handing a folder full of information about the ten children then in a soft voice she said, "Children introduce yourselves to our guest."

The first to stand was the boy in the far left of the sofa. He's a fine boy with intelligent hazel eyes and spiky raven hair. He stands like a blue blood would do – full of confidence and intelligence. He took three steps towards Tony and offered his hand, "I'm Edward Lloyd Austen. Nice to meet you Mr. Stark."

He flipped the pages of the young boy's profile. Orphaned through massacre in London, he was from a middle class family of businessmen. He's educated in an executive school meant for intelligent people and has an IQ of 140. Also, he is well versed in the field of science as he once dreamt of being a scientist who'll be able to discover a renewable unlimited source of power or electricity.

"He fits perfectly with the requirements that I requested." He shook the boy's hand and motioned for the others to introduce themselves. Bit by bit, he discovered that in all of the boys therein, the first was the one he's searching for. As for the girls, he doesn't like the fact that the one was obviously swooning at the sight of him and the second was not very familiar with science.

"Hmm. So I guess there's one more?" He faced Mina as gestured his hand towards an empty seat on the far right.

"I guess she went to the bathroom or something. Ira, go fetch the young girl please." Mina instructed to the young brunette. A few minutes later, Ira returned with a timid young girl who's basically hiding behind the brunette.

"Come on, introduce yourself." Ira gently took the girl's hand off her pants and guided her in front of Tony. She has an eye-catching platinum blonde hair and sorrowful looking grey eyes. She's quite small for her age and a little bit skinny too. Nervously, she opened her little mouth to say her name.

"My name's Freya. I'm seven years old... or at least that's what Mina and the others assumed." She said in a tiny but charming voice while staring at the floor. After that, silence took over the room.

"Her memories are quite messed up so we don't know whether she has other relatives or something. I found her walking around the forest at the back together with a pack of wolves that was obviously waiting for the right time to eat her up. I found a necklace with a key pendant tucked on her dress that day with a date of 7 years ago etched on it. I assumed that it was her birthdate." She pointed on the pendant that the girl was silently playing with. He looked further on her profile and found something interesting on the psychological and mental part of her medical results.

"Traces of MPS and no available result for IQ test?" He raised an eyebrow and studied the young girl below her. Surely enough, the boy was the perfect child he's looking for but something about this young girl allures him so much. It is as if she was something he needed to have, something he must keep near to himself.

"Well, there are times that she would say that we're all nothing but ants against her. As for her IQ test, the doctors said that the tests given to her was not enough to measure her mental capabilities."

"Really? That's interesting and a little bit disturbing at some other parts." He then kneeled down to face the young girl and asked her a simple question.

"They say you're very intelligent. Let's test if you really are, shall we?" He closed his eyes for a mere second and then grinned to the young girl. "Suppose you were to create a source of power that's clean and renewable, what material would you use and what theory would you apply to achieve your goal?"

The girl stared at him for a minute, not really knowing what to answer. Silence, once again, enveloped the room. Lloyd on the other hand, jumped with interest as he sprinted towards Tony.

"If I were her, I would choose the materials and process you did with the arc reactor! Not only it's proven to be safe, it's the only clean energy available out there that has the least harmful effects aside from it being very costly to make!" He burst enthusiastically as he held onto Tony's arm and Freya's shoulder.

"Exactly! That's exactly the answer I'm looking for!" Tony proudly patted the young boy's shoulder, acknowledging the great answer he offered to everyone in the room. Freya merely titled her head slightly. She eyed Tony again before she pulled him down and whispered to his ears an answer that sent chills down to his very soul.

"If I were either him or you, I would not rely on the arc reactor that much. Its power would only last for about a millennium or so… If I were to create a stable source of clean power, I would definitely use the power of gods." She let go of Tony and showed a sickly sweet smile to him.

"Power of gods? So you're a religious maniac huh? Sorry but I'm an atheist." He joked to her with a soft voice. Well, he can't blame the girl if she becomes a religious maniac. After all, he doesn't know what hell the girl went through before she ended up in the orphanage. To his surprise, the girl continued to smile at his joke and pulled him down again to whisper a more sinister answer.

"No, I'm not a religious maniac. I am referring to the Tesseract, Anthony Edward Stark." Out of shock, he abruptly pushed himself up. Because of this, Freya lost her balance and fell on the floor laughing. Mina quickly helped her up and said, "Now, do you understand the "traces of MPS" written on her med record?"

"I guess I do." He quickly steadied himself and flashed his Stark grin to Mina and said, "Please prepare the papers of the young girl. I want her to come home with me tonight as I chose her to become the adopted daughter of the owner of the Stark Industries." He too, started laughing along with Freya as he conveniently sat upon one of the chairs in the room.

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AN: What do you think? Reviews are greatly appreciated~

Please forgive the grammar/spelling errors ^^" English is not my mother language :)


	2. Act 1: What should I call you?

A/N: Thank you for the follows and faves *o*

Also to **PrussianCross** and **AlwaysMyself11** for the review ^^

I have always wondered what to put on here and I've never figured out even now so.. into the story ^^"

**Disclaimer**: Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to buy the Avengers from Marvel so.. yeah

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**Act 1: What should I call you?**

A few hours later, Tony had signed all legal papers needed for Freya's adoption. Mina too, has signed all of them with a sweet smile on her face and finally handed all of them to Tony who happily took it from her smooth hands. The two chatted about the young girl's unique attitude and mentality. Tony learned that just like him, Freya was an atheist. She never prayed to any god in particular and was hesitant to believe in one although; she is quite interested in mythological entities and deities, especially the Greek and Norse mythology.

"Ira, please call our lawyer and make sure that he will be here the day after tomorrow to finalize all the documents needed for Freya's adoption." Mina mentioned to her brunette assistant.

"As you wish," Ira quickly went to the other room and made the phone call. The two occupants of the office continued talking about Freya.

"So about her MPS–"

"Do you really want to know that?" Mina swiftly cut him off midway. Tony was shocked at the tone she used on that sentence. It was a pure contrast to the expression she is currently wearing–sickening sweet grin, accompanied by a criticizing gaze. He was caught off guard and back-stepped a few feet away from the latter. She may have caught on the effect of her actions and almost instantly replaced her grin with a genuine caring smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that it became a habit of mine to scare the soon to be new parents of that child. Sort of a way of knowing if they are really determined to adopt her. Although, Ira always say that it's probably the reason why all of them refuses to adopt her in the end." She laughed a little at the thought before putting a worried face.

"It doesn't affect me at all, if that's what you're worried about." he assured her. A few moments passed before she finally invited him to a joint room of the office. From the large bookcases, Tony could only assume that it's possibly a library or the room where they keep the orphans' records.

"This is the orphanage's library where we also keep the children's records. On the far back, where we are actually going, stands a safe containing either ..." She continued walking fast ahead of him, which resulted to him not hearing the rest of her words. Even though to many this would look quite suspicious, Tony paid no attention at all and trotted his way to wherever his guide leads him. Quite a distance from the entrance stands a 4-feet high safe. Mina quickly typed the passcode and with a silent click, the safe opened to reveal a small cabinet with three drawers. Unto the top of each handle lies some kind of label: Medical Records for the first, Background on the second, and the third label… well there's actually no label for the third drawer, unless you count a blank paper as one.

Tony had already thought that she would probably open the first one, more or less. After all, the label says it contains medical records. However, in the back of his genius mind, he was actually wishing that she would open the third. The girl obviously isn't a normal orphan and from her little antics a few hours ago, he wouldn't be shocked if she turned out to be some out of this world being– exactly the reason why he find such interest in her despite the fact that the boy, Lloyd, proved to be the better choice in regards of his company's interest.

"Please refrain from opening the envelope when you are not alone in a room. These are considered confidential files and despite being Freya's new father, it's still in my responsibility to ensure that these files are strictly not to be viewed carelessly." Her sudden monotonous voice caught his attention. He had also just realized that his wish had already been granted, the envelope that Mina was holding was undoubtedly from the still open third drawer.

"Yep, don't worry. I'll take responsibility of whatever classified information that envelope is hiding." Although he had said this, Mina's all too serious face didn't change but at least she handed the envelope to him. Tony only dismissed this as a normal reaction. He thought that judging from his carefree answer; she probably thought he meant the opposite of his words… which was actually right. He guessed that this woman is used to this kind of talk– the kind where someone usually deceives the other into believing that the partial truth is the truth and the truth a lie. Nonetheless, she never mentioned anything anymore and went on with closing the safe. Soon, both of them heard the door to the office open.

"Probably Ira and Freya. Shall we go back to the main office?" She stood up and once again started to walk ahead of him. He thought that the sudden change in her attitude is due to the fact that after a long time, Freya finally has someone to call her parent.

* * *

The drive to the nearest airport, where his private jet is waiting, proved to be quite long. He never felt the distance on his way before simply because he was sleeping, but right now sleep wasn't in his to-do list. The contents of the envelope mostly occupy his mind aside from the possible reactions of the tower's occupants to this matter. Then, he also thought of Pepper's reaction when she discovers that the one he adopted was a girl. When the two of them talked about at least having an heir to the company, she quickly suggested that it's best to name a legitimate as one but he turned down the idea. The thought of having children haven't entered his mind yet and adopting someone old enough to take care of him/herself would be much easier. This was, after all, only for the sake of strengthening the trust and confidence of the board of directors. With all of the recent dangers that he and Pepper encountered, they feared that the possibility of the two of them dying is high thus leaving the company to one but them. Knowing that would be a scenario that some of the idiotic directors would love, he must prevent it at all cost and to temporarily name an heir is the easiest answer.

"M-may I ask something?" Freya's small voice snapped him from his thinking.

"Do you really have to ask? I mean, it's polite to do so but hey you're technically my daughter now." He smiled to her. He noted that her normal personality is that of a well-behaved girl. At least, that's much better than the sudden act she pulled before.

"What should I call you? Can I call you father or even dad?"

"Are you serious?" He truly can't comprehend her question; wouldn't an adopted child automatically call her parent as one?

"…I understand." She instantly went silent and busied herself with looking outside the window. To this, Tony could only raise his brow. He suddenly took back what he thought, her little naughty yet lively act was much better than this well-behaved personality of hers.

"Hey, I'm not mad or anything. I'm just asking if you're seriously asking such question. Isn't it normal for you to call me that? And I certainly don't have issues even if you call me 'papa', your choice." With this, her eyes widened a bit and she instantly smiled at him. She then eagerly shortened the distance between the two of them, shocking him a bit but relaxing after realizing what she intends to do, hug him.

"Then, thank you for adopting me dad." She continued to hug him for a while before letting go and once again busying herself with the passing scenery, this time with a smile.

* * *

The rest of the trip back to the Avengers Tower was silent. It mainly includes Pepper calling to remind him of things and Freya sleeping. Upon their arrival, it was already past midnight and thus he decided to go straight to his room covertly. At first, he himself wondered why he's going inside his own tower stealthily but then decided it's probably the best for the sleeping young girl in his arms. He did not want to carry her however; she sleeps like a log and won't wake up no matter how much nudging he does. Setting the girl down to his bed, he changed his clothes and was about to get something to drink in the kitchen when someone suddenly grabbed him.

"My friend! When did you come back? Is it possible that you have recently arrived?" Thor's booming voice shocked the living daylights out of the towers' sleeping occupants.

"Do you really need to be so loud Point Blank?" Tony can only sigh. From the night's silence, he could clearly hear the successive opening of doors and the rushed footsteps of several people. Soon, the rest of the team together with a sleepy Coulson and a grumpy Fury arrived near the kitchen where Thor caught him.

"About fucking time, Stark. I thought you were planning to take a vacation while doing such a goddamn decision of adopting a child from a fucking orphanage. I don't care whatever motive you have with this act of yours, but can't you understand that carelessly adopting someone may fucking affect the whole team?" Fury instantly bellowed at the sight of him. He never thought he'd actually stay to wait for him. Another thing is that he can't understand the issues Fury has with the adaptation. Ever since he told him the possibility two weeks ago, he actually threatened him several times that adaptation from a mysterious and suspicious looking orphanage will only bring additional problems to the team.

"Oh I don't know, sorry. And what could be the 'fucking' effects you're talking about?" He even used his fingers to emphasize the f word and rolled his eyes before proceeding towards his room. His thirst had suddenly flown off to Antarctica and the only thing he wanted to do was either sleep or go to the lab. Choosing the latter would mean he needs to answer Fury's idiotic questions and thus decided that even if he were not sleepy at the moment, spending the next minutes at Fury's presence would simply just annoy him to hell.

"Stark! Hey! Wait up!" Steve abruptly shouted after before he even touched the door to his room.

"Can't we talk later in the morning? At least let me have a proper sleep, I had just arrived from my overseas trip?" He heard three deep breaths then the sound of retreating footsteps. He felt relieved by the thought that he wouldn't need to explain anything to Fury and the team… for the night.


End file.
